Three time champion and one of the best 2 guards (shooting guard) to ever play the game, Dwyane Wade, has left the Miami Heat and signed with the Chicago Bulls for 2 years 47 million dollars. Wade is from Chicago and will have to see more of his ex-wife with whom he had a bitter divorce/split a few years ago.

The Heat made 27 year old center, Hassan Whiteside, a priority, signed him for 4 years 98 million, then pursued free agent superstar, Kevin Durant, who decided on Golden State Warriors. Then Heat turned their attention to Wade, and ultimately made a final offer of 2 years $40 million… but, apparently, Wade wanted $50 for 2 years and neither side would budge. With the “TV money” increasing the salary cap this year, and teams offering ridiculously large salaries to free agents, it was no surprise that Wade’s ask was also large, which would have made him the highest paid player on the Heat for the first time in his Heat career. But, alas, it wasn’t to be.

A well-respected Pentecostal evangelist, W Wilson, had a very famous line back in the late 70s and early 80s in Jamaica. He said, “Pride wears the man“. At the end of the day, it was that pride on both sides of the table that killed the deal.

There are hurt feelings, some remorse after the two sides split but we know there’s deeper issues than just the money which may have begun when Lebron left 2 years ago, then escalated further last year when the Heat and Wade had a very tough, public negotiation.

We wish Wade all the best and he gave Miami 13 great years. I, for one, see the possibility of him returning to the Heat @37 (after 2 years) to finish his career with the Heat and then get his jersey retired. Of course, his jersey will be retired by the Heat even if he never returns.

NBA team Miami Heat has it’s 15-man regular season roster for 2014-. They’ve played 2 games, winning both. Check out the roster and comment on what you think, who are good selections, who are OK selections, and who are bad selections.

I like the roster and am excited to see how well they’ll play. If I were given two changes and such players were available, I feel it would’ve been great to have a big man (7 footer) who can defend and a not-so-big man who is a known, feared, shooter like Ray Allen. Other than those, I think this is a good roster who can win 50-54 games. The team will have to play hard, and not take off parts of games like the past 4 years when they were clearly the best in the East or like Florida State University’s (FSU’s) football team this year.

If the Heat had the 7 foot defender and another shooter, I’d predict 60-64 wins which would put them, on paper, as the best team in the East. Right now, on paper, they’re #2 to #4 in the East… again, on paper. Just a caution, however: Paper doesn’t win games. Each team still has to play well-enough to make the playoffs, let alone top the Eastern Conference.

In January 2014, mega-billionaire & philanthropist Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway and billionaire Daniel “Dan” Gilbert of Quicken Loans and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team released their idea of a neo-impossible Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge [with Yahoo Sports], where you pick all 63 games correctly, a perfect bracket, in the NCAA mens college basketball tournament and win or share one billion US dollars.

Dedicated sports fan and Yowlink co-founder, @csharpe, shared the information and it’s interesting really. He’s the sports expert but, as he calls it, it’s a great exercise since it’s “almost impossible to win the one billion dollars.” As he put it,

“1. Nobody has ever picked a perfect bracket since inception years ago.”

“2. It is almost-impossible to win the one billion dollars, especially with the rules of one entry per household… almost but not impossible.”

“3. This is an intriguing thing for many but hopefully we don’t get too consumed with it.”

“4. Warren Buffett, though an alleged sports fan who has himself filled out numerous failed brackets, probably did this to demonstrate that one has to work hard for their money. One billion dollars is very difficult to get with just luck… This is not the lottery.”

The Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE CHANCES OF WINNING.

Must be a legal resident of the 50 United States and DC,

Must 21 or older.

Must register and fill out bracket between March 3, 2014 and March 19, 2014.

Grand Prize of $1 Billion for perfect bracket in 2014 college basketball tournament

(only available to first 10,000,000 registrants but, at its sole discretion, Sponsor reserves the right to expand the entry pool for the Grand Prize to a larger number of registrants);

Twenty (20) First Prizes of $100,000 each to the owners of the top twenty scoring brackets.

Winners determined after end of tournament.

Prize Conditions: Grand Prize payable over course of 40 years in annual payments of $25 million.

Grand Prize Winner may elect to receive a one-time payment of $500 million.

Odds: Grand Prize – 1:9,223,372,036,854,775,808, which may vary depending upon the knowledge and skill of entrant;

First Prize – odds of winning depend on number and quality of entries received.

If you still feel you will be one of those first 10 million entrants, go ahead and register. It’s simple. You may win one of those top 20 spots if nobody wins the billion.

What a thing if Lebron James or one of his Heat brethren is qualified to play and wins the billion dollars? That would be something! If you remember, Lebron James left Dan Gilbert’s team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, to play for the Miami Heat. What followed were some bitter words mostly in the form of a letter from Dan Gilbert. I suppose they’ve made up since then. After all, that was almost 4 years ago.

Miami Heat defeated San Antonio 95 – 88 in game 7 to win their 2nd consecutive (3rd overall) NBA Championship. Shane Battier who was benched for most of the series and brought into game 6, came off the bench in game 7 to hit 6 of 8 three pointers (18 points). Dwyane “THREE” Wade scored an important 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while the masterful Lebron “LBJ” James scored 37 and had 11 rebounds. It was more of a scoring game for both sides as Miami Heat only had 14 assists to San Antonio’s 13. Tony Parker, guarded by Lebron most of the time only managed 10 points and 4 assists in 36.5 mins. Duncan had 24 in the loss.

The teams were clearly civil. There was no animosity between the teams or among the players. The only backlash may come from the fact that Daniel Green was sighted “partying” at the same club where the Heat was. Green, who played with Lebron in Cleveland, denied that he went there to party with the Heat, claiming on Twitter that it was purely coincidental.